Boston Public Library - Electric Scotland

132 WILLIAM B. ALLISON, OF DUBUQUE, IOWA.
because he insists on havint;^ a reason for his votes. He is
largely influenced by the feeling and opinions of his section
of the country. This has made him an advocate of lower
rates of tariff duties, and a consistent friend of the land-grant
railroads. In 1870, after he had declined a reelection to the
house of representatives, and just before he was chosen to be
Senator Harlan's successor, he took a very prominent part in
the debate on Mr. Schenck's tariff bill. In the course of a
speech on that measure, he said,—" The tariff of 1846,
although confessedly and professedly a tariff for revenue,
was, so far as regards all the great interests of the country,
as perfect a tariff as any that we have ever had."
Perhaps the following extract from the same speech will
best illustrate his tariff views of that time
" : Our policy
should be so to cheapen manufactured products that we can
revive our export trade, now swept away because we cannot
compete with other nations in the markets of the world. If
we could restore what we have lost, and in addition greatly
enlarge our exportations of manufactures, we would then
have an enlarged home market for our agricultural products
in a concentrated form, in exchange for other commodities
which we do not and cannot produce."
He is really the author of the existing silver law, although
he did not bring forward and advocate the measure as an
original proposition. As tlie Bland bill passed the house of
representatives it was a free coinage measure, and the senate
finance committee was equally divided for and against it,
Mr. Allison neither approving nor it. opposing Some silver
legislation was inevitable, and Mr. Allison suggested the
measure which was adopted. He is a bimetallist, but not of
the Bland kind, and the law as it stands to-day (1888)
ought to bear Mr. Allison's rather than Mr. Bland's name.
The measure was probably the most conservative that could
have been adopted at the time it became a law.
Mr. Allison's friendship for the land-grant roads, which
came into existence during the beginning of his service in
the house, was shown by his opposition to the Thurman act.
There was no question as to the sincerity of his position,
however. He voted and spoke against the bill because he
believed that it would be injurious to the interests of the
roads which had done very much for the building up of the
material interests of his state.
For the rest he has always been a strong friend of the
national bank system, and the treasury has leaned upon him
as one of its wisest and most influential friends in congress.